


After the performance

by 1YoungWriter1



Series: Yesterday's Heroine [1]
Category: Captain America - All Media Types, Marvel 616, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Winter Soldier (Comics)
Genre: F/M, Natasha-centric, cold-Natasha
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-08-22
Updated: 2014-08-22
Packaged: 2018-02-14 06:42:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 938
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2181846
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/1YoungWriter1/pseuds/1YoungWriter1
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After CA:TWS, Natasha has dropped her façade, and is back in freelance, proving that the Black Widow is as ruthless as ever. All while trying to find a way to help the Winter Soldier regain his memories she realises that her best choice is the Tesseract. But in order to 'work its magic' she will have to make a deal with the God of Mischief.</p>
            </blockquote>





	After the performance

**Author's Note:**

> My first attempt at a 'slow-pace' multi-chapter fic, so please leave comments and criticism!

A young woman, tall, fit, with long black hair goes through one of the dark allies of New York. It’s very secluded, but easy to find when you know where to look. She knocks three times on the metal door and waits for an answer. The door is soon opened by an elderly woman, who invites her in and swiftly close the door behind her. Inside the small apartment it’s dusty and stuffy. The carpets are old and the wallpaper stinks of nicotine.  
“Has the electrician come over yet, Mrs Brown?” The young woman asks, inquisitively.  
“No, he hasn’t dear!” The old woman answers coldly, not letting the visitor go further through.  
“Perhaps they’ve sent an explanation in the post?” The old woman goes into one of the rooms and reappears holding three envelopes, tightly filled with something.  
“Should I keep waiting for him, or not, sweetie?” She gives the envelopes to the young woman, who checks that their seal hasn't been broken.  
“No, I don’t think so. I’ll contact another company.” Satisfied with the results, she passes one to the old woman. “I think this one’s for you!” They smile at each other briefly and the strange young woman leaves.  
The old lady opens up the envelope and quickly counts the money, before putting it back and retreating to one of the back rooms.

Natasha swiftly exited the alley, walked down a few blocks, took a cab to Brooklyn and walked a few blocks more to her motorbike. 

Natasha, like any spy, was paranoiac. The envelopes she had retrieved were given to ‘Mrs Brown’ for safekeeping a few months back. Before that they were in the hands of ‘Mr Zinger’, for a year or so they were held by ‘Mr Steel’. All in all, the documents inside were around two years old, but not out-dated: passport, driving licence, a Diamond Club Card for British Airways, a check book and debit card, a bank account statement and the Terms & Conditions of her bank account.

SHIELD had ceased to exist, any contract or protection she had from SHIELD was gone too. She slowly started her motorbike, put on her helmet and rode north. She had a safe-house in Albany, she wanted to get there as soon as possible. Natasha Romanoff, agent of SHIELD was going to disappear, once and for all. Well, she might leave a few ‘gifts’ behind, for her ‘friends’, but that woman would never appear again, if possible.

After a few pit-stops she arrived in Albany just as the sun was setting. She quickly bought the basic supplies she needed in a supermarket, before retiring to her secluded apartment. As soon as she shut the door, she dropped the shadow of a smile of her lips and judged the apartment. Everything seemed to be in place: civilian clothes, jewellery, medical kit, back-up documents and ID, weapons and an emergency back-pack that contained all the same but in fewer quantities.

First of all, she put the ‘prepared dishes’ into the microwave, stuffed everything else into the fridge and pulled of her black wig and blue-eye lenses. She then switched on her laptop, connected to a random proxy server and sent out a few encrypted messages to her acquaintances. She had pulled in a few debts, rung a few bells, left a few fingerprints: alerted the world that the Black Widow was back in business. It would take a few days, but she would eventually get a job. She took her dinner out of the microwave and started searching the ‘mass media’. Her primary mission was to help her…ex-partner, lover, friend: the Winter Soldier. As far a she knew, he was out there. She needed to know, how much he knew at this point. She needed to assess the situation: how much did he remember? How much does he want to remember?  
She decided to try and find him first, if possible, and agree on a plan of action together. She could try and find the data from the Red Room; some might have survived the 90’s. She had killed her last Soviet handler without asking many questions, but he hadn’t known much anyway. The son-of-a-bitch was a traitor with a bank account in USD. Whatever files he had he had probably sold along with the Winter Soldier. So where should she start? She could try and contact Von Doom, he had a few cryo-chambers from Department X, she could go through HYDRA’s records, what was left of them…

A few hours later she found a revelation. It wasn’t the best choice, it wasn’t the safest, it might not even be a valid choice… But she could try to find out. If it was true that the Cosmic Cube could return memories, she could ask Thor for help… It would mean another appearance from Natasha Romanoff, but ‘the deed justifies the means’…But Thor was not excellent at magic or whatever it was called. Loki was the expert, but she couldn’t trust him. Maybe Thor could ask Odin, or Frieja. In any case she would have to find the Winter Soldier first, she doubted it could be done long-distance.  
She looked into the night sky, through her window. If it was true, that Hiemdal could hear and see everything… Well, she could only hope he heard her now and passed the message. Hell, she was a triple-crossing bitch, anyone with any sense in them wouldn’t give her any help.

She would have to find Jane Foster, contact Thor through her.  
Meanwhile, she went back to her research, trying to find a Plan B on bringing back memories.


End file.
